My friend Melissa posted about her daily routines for homeschooling, chores, etc and I thought it was a good idea so I'm doing the same!

In the morning I try to get up before Tim leaves so we can have coffee or breakfast together and touch base. It also helps if I shower and get dressed before he leaves! The kids get up somewhere between 6:30 and 7:30 most mornings. Once they are up they are expected (and do a great job most days) to get dressed, make their beds, and pick up their rooms. They bring their dirty clothes to the laundry room and put away toys. After morning chores we have breakfast. For the most part breakfast is done individually and the boys serve themselves and clean up when they are done (clean up means they clear their places and put the cereal and milk away usually).

While they are doing this, I am getting Kylee dressed and ready for the day and starting my morning chores. I do a general pick up of the main living areas, start laundry, do any dishes needed, and wipe down the kitchen. I dislike clutter so this is the time I take care of yesterdays junk mail and other things that have accumulated around the front entry way. After the boys have eaten, they move into work time. We have lessons and do school work until between 11:00 and 11:30. We start with individual work time, break for snack (often a cooking project because Aidan and I love to cook), do group subjects (art, music, science, some geography and culture things) and then the boys play outside. Kylee is usually napping during a good portion of this, which helps. Depending on the day, we may do lunch before the boys head outside if we were really busy in the morning.

After lunch we are less structured and I work on my own daily chores, any dinner preparations I need to, and my other projects. For my own daily chores I have a list of what I do each day and I try to do at least that and add in extra jobs as needed. Today, for example, is the day I clean my kitchen and mop the floor. I don't like this day particularly, but its nice because we eat at church on Wednesday so I can have all the dishes done and the floors and counters clean early in the afternoon and know they will stay that way until the next day! Some jobs, like cleaning the bathroom, I do more than once/week. Although I usually run some laundry every day, I have two designated washing days (Monday and Thursday) and two designated folding days (Tuesday and Friday) and usually don't wash on the weekends.

The boys are allowed to watch a small amount of television in the afternoon and spend the rest of the time playing or reading. Tim is home by 4:00 most days and we are able to have some family time before dinner. After dinner, the boys do evening chores (which basically consists of cleaning up from dinner, feeding critters with Tim, and getting ready for bed) and then we have family reading time. Tim reads aloud for a half an hour or so and we all really enjoy this time. Sometimes I'm tempted to go finish cleaning up from dinner or get a start on the next days chores, but I never regret staying to listen! The boys are in bed by 8:00, and we are free to enjoy some time together or working on projects before we head to bed ourselves. Lately Kylee has been going to be around 7:30 as well so that has been even nicer!

We do have a family job board with 4 jobs that we rotate every Saturday night. We chose from youngest to oldest and that person is responsible for those things during the week. I get to decide when the jobs need to be done (I'm usually pretty flexible, but the garbage is picked up on Tuesday so there are deadlines) and there is no switching allowed. The kitchen helper helps with setting the table, washing counters, and dishes. The laundry helper helps with folding and putting away laundry. Dusting and vacuuming is kind of obvious, and the last job is garbage and recycling. On Saturday nights they also get 3 pennies, assuming they did an adequate job of their chores during the week. I know, its really not much but until they actually start understanding this better I'm not giving them more!

The money is theirs to do as they please with, but we do encourage regular giving and savings. Aidan has 3 jars for giving, savings, and spending and will often decide to put one penny in each jar. They bring their giving pennies to church and their Sunday School class is raising money to buy new shoes for boys living in Jamaica. They also each have a savings account where we bring extra money they recieve on special occasions (the pennies don't really add up to enough to justify a deposit). They are able to spend their money as they chose, but one thing we do that is a little different is have a "toy jail". Toys that are used as weapons, argued over, left on the steps, or generally left where they don't belong go in a basket on top of the fridge and once/week (also on Saturday) we take it down and they can buy back their things at the price of 1 penny each. The first week we did this I made almost a dollar in pennies, but now its more like .20 or so total.

So that is probably way more than anyone wanted to know, but there you go!

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